Unlocking the Potential of Government Contracting for Your Business
Nov 16, 2023Episode 34
Jay and Mink|Tha Godays
What if there's a steady, reliable source of income that's often overlooked?
Brace yourself for an in-depth exploration into the world of government contracting. Join us as we share real life experiences, giving you a front-row seat to understand the intricate dynamics of government operations and how your business can harness its unique value. We also delve into the necessity of having a robust infrastructure to sustain your operations during elongated payment waiting periods, ensuring your business remains afloat.
As we navigate further, we take you through the myriad of opportunities that government contracting presents to businesses, regardless of their size. We outline key success steps such as setting up a strong business structure, acquiring relevant certifications, and building relationships with the right agencies. Prepare to face seasoned contenders in this space and learn how to stand out. We wrap up with a guide on how to leverage resources like Small Business Development Centers and other government agencies to propel your business to success.
This episode is your ticket to tapping into the trillion-dollar government spending budget, so whether you're a veteran in business or just setting the sail, buckle up for the ride!
What if there's a steady, reliable source of income that's often overlooked?
Brace yourself for an in-depth exploration into the world of government contracting. Join us as we share real life experiences, giving you a front-row seat to understand the intricate dynamics of government operations and how your business can harness its unique value. We also delve into the necessity of having a robust infrastructure to sustain your operations during elongated payment waiting periods, ensuring your business remains afloat.
As we navigate further, we take you through the myriad of opportunities that government contracting presents to businesses, regardless of their size. We outline key success steps such as setting up a strong business structure, acquiring relevant certifications, and building relationships with the right agencies. Prepare to face seasoned contenders in this space and learn how to stand out. We wrap up with a guide on how to leverage resources like Small Business Development Centers and other government agencies to propel your business to success.
This episode is your ticket to tapping into the trillion-dollar government spending budget, so whether you're a veteran in business or just setting the sail, buckle up for the ride!
Cause we know just from first hand experience that government contracting is definitely a way to not only build wealth but actually accelerate and grow your company.
Speaker 2:
It's built from ground up and nobody could break this. I make it real moves when I see it.
Speaker 1:
I want it, I get it. Let's build an empire, baby, I know that. You with it. What's up y'all?
Speaker 3:
What's good?
Speaker 1:
What's good, you know. Yeah, on the move. Yes, we definitely more.
Speaker 3:
Little travel going on right now, always, you know, in a state of growth, making sure that we in environments that's going to continue to feed us. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:
And that's really in every capacity you know, feed us mentally, spiritually, financially, and I just feel like you know it's important for you know all people, especially couples, you know y'all raising families, building legacies, you know, to always be in the state of growth, because growth kind of keeps you open to like new things.
Speaker 3:
Right.
Speaker 1:
You know, and I think that was one of the key things that, like, helped us. You know, as we grew into becoming business partners. You know, and I think, being open to entrepreneurship because it's like you know, I don't think y'all really know about our government contract and story.
Speaker 3:
I don't know, so I don't know about the same life, but it's like government, it's going the journey.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, like government contracting is the bag, you know, and a lot of people are afraid to get into it. And I don't know if I was afraid to get into it, I think I was just really more. More the fear of was because of the lack of understanding. But you know, when you think about it, you know the government has a $6.2 or $9 trillion spend yearly. You know, and when you think about that, you use the dollars.
Speaker 3:
And what most people don't realize is that whatever you do, like most industries, commodities, whatever it is that you do as a business and most capacities, the government buys.
Speaker 1:
Down to pencils the government.
Speaker 3:
It don't matter what it is Like if you a barber you feel what I'm saying. If you make t-shirts.
Speaker 1:
We saw contracts in all of these things that we were seeing Like if you do makeup, yes, the government like don't get it twisted, don't think that, or though your industry don't apply. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Like there's literally. I remember I sent this, I sent a bid to my barber. Remember this years ago.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I remember before it was the nursing home huh. No, it was for the jail. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, the prison At the prison At the U prison. Yeah, you know, like six figure contract. A six figure contract To cut To show up once a week To cut hair.
Speaker 1:
And you know, I think that you know and we're not saying that everyone should go into government contracting, but we are saying that you know, government contracting is the way that we got started. We were able to build a, you know, seven figure enterprise just based off of government contracting. We still have government contracts right now. We approve, as we actually record, you know, this podcast and you know, I mean we've received so many contracts and it has definitely been the one thing that we have been able to understand what it's like to work smarter and not harder.
Speaker 3:
So what would you say is some of the pros of government?
Speaker 1:
contracting. It's dependable. It's dependable. There's longevity there. You don't have to. The only thing that you would have, that you will have to do is wait for your money when you first are getting started, because sometimes there is a. There is a yeah that's a con is you know, is there's a wait? You know there can be a 30 day, 60 day, 90 day wait, you know, for your payments.
Speaker 3:
But other than that I mean you have to have some infrastructure set, which you most. You should have some infrastructure set up that allows you to still be able to operate when you wait on that, on those payments.
Speaker 1:
The pro is that you're Multiple contracts awesome Right.
Speaker 3:
The pros are that your money coming.
Speaker 1:
Your money is coming Like you don't.
Speaker 3:
You ain't gotta be caught, you don't gotta worry about calling. You know whoever to be. Like man, you know you gonna pay this invoice.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 3:
Now your money coming, but they got terms. You know they have certain ways that they process payments and invoices that may cause your cash flow to be a little strained for a while. So you gotta be in a certain position, or you gotta put yourself in a certain position, to be able to wait on those payments so you can still operate.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So you know, a pro of government contracting is definitely the. You know it's dependable. It's dependable Is, I say we say it's fairly easy to get into, depending on what type of industry that you are in. Construction is a very big industry, because Sultan is a very big industry. In government contracting, facility maintenance is a very big industry. Training, training, and you have to think about these things because when you're thinking about, as you should, as a business owner, like what value do you bring right, when you think about government, right, the government operates in every capacity, so what value do you bring to the government? And that's how you go into your, that's how you build your, your I guess I'm gonna say your portfolio your value proposition or your value portfolio in terms of, like, how you get into government contracting and you stay into it.
Speaker 1:
There are so many business owners that we know so many businesses that have gotten into this and even, like, in real estate, you know a lot of people. They don't look at real estate as one of those things, but it's like we were. We got our first GSA contract, I think, when we our first year in real estate, you know, as our own brokerage. You know, and this was not something that we broadcasted because, to be honest with you, we weren't experts we just we saw opportunity and we took it, you know, and we learned along the way, but real estate is one of those things that the that the government actually think about in their facilities are real estate.
Speaker 3:
You know you know so many capacities, so many different capacities. They look for leasing agents, they look for, you know, they look for landowners.
Speaker 1:
Acquisitions yeah, they look for consultants you know they look for appraisers.
Speaker 3:
You know they look for, you know, specialists, people that can actually, you know, give them advice on what type of real estate they should be looking at. You know. So you know it's a. It's again. The government looks for all types of industries and commodities, and toys, you know to participate, right, and so like, if you guys want to.
Speaker 1:
You know, really, you know this is just like we say. This is something that we're just throwing out there because this is. You know, we're at a conference right now that is about you know different various industries within the government, the agency that's putting on this contract. You know they're one of the agencies that connect businesses to government contracts. You know you definitely want to make sure that you have your business structure. You definitely want to make sure that you go on Samgov, you have your DUS number, all of those things, those basic things. You want to make sure that you have, that You're a correct mailing address. You know All of your things are connected. You don't want to have your business address here, you just everything is connected. You want to have a legitimate phone number, a legitimate address, and you also want to, you know, have a capability statement. You know what? Yeah, what capabilities do you actually have? What can you provide to these governmental agencies that you have? And you want to start sourcing. You even want to start. This is another thing too. Go to some of your local agencies. Whatever those local agencies are, there's SBDC, small Business Development Centers all over. You know, all in all, 56. You want to connect with them. You want to connect with agencies.
Speaker 1:
If you're a veteran, go into, like your veteran business agencies that help veterans. I've utilized those services. If you are a veteran, you want to make sure you get veteran-owned certified. If you're a woman, if you're a minority, you want to be minority-owned certified. Wosb, woman-owned Small Business Enterprise. You want to make sure that you get your MBE. If you are a minority business, you know your DBE. You're a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. If you're in a hub zone, you want to make sure you get your hub zone certification.
Speaker 1:
All of these things help you because with the government they're set-asized. If you're a woman-owned business, guess what's going to happen they have set-asized. If you go to like InstaMarket and you start going on there, that's a government agency that have government contracts. On there You're able to look at these government contracts and you're able to see the set-asized that they have. So that you're not going against hundreds of people You're only going at, you're only submitting your RFP or your RFQ to a pool of people that have the same set-aside that you have, which puts you in a better position to actually receive the government contract.
Speaker 1:
So you want to make sure that you and your business, you're able to check all of the squares, you're able to check all of the boxes, you know, whenever you're Getting into this because, again, like we say, it's very lucrative but you want to make sure that your business is set up properly, you want to make sure that you have all of the correct certifications and you want to connect with a government Contracting officer. So, whatever it's, there's so many different. That's one of the things we learned about with the different agencies. You know, you think that you'll just get with the veteran on agency, but it's a no. There's, like so many different agencies that have their own own certification process in their own portals but you can't hurt.
Speaker 3:
It can't hurt. You know. Working with you know as many as you can. Yeah because it's their resources. Yeah, they're there to help guide you. And no, I'm gonna just tell you straight up, they're not gonna always have experts. You may have, you may know more than them when it comes to your field and when it comes to even business.
Speaker 3:
Mm-hmm but they're there to help you navigate how to get certified, how to help you get the certifications that you need to be qualified to take advantage of some of these set asides that these government contracts offer. So the best thing that you're doing is basically putting yourself in position. Putting yourself in position that was the biggest thing that me and me did when we first got into the government contract in space. It wasn't so much of that the organization that we were working with, that they were so savvy and they had the best Experts that was helping us. What it did was it put us in rooms that we may not have been able to get in, as as as 20 something year-olds trying to get into a space with people that's been in the industry 30 and 40 years.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:
You know, we was attending big conferences with people. We and I'm in 20s. These people been in business for 30 some years. Yeah they, they, they, twice our age. You know they the age of our grandparents. But we're at these big conferences mainly because we learned the process. Yeah, from attending some of them, from going to some of these agencies showing us how To submit a proposal, how to do a Request for qualifications.
Speaker 1:
Yes, you know, the RFP and RFQ is different totally different.
Speaker 1:
Yes, a request for quotation, a request for qualification, a request for a proposal, is totally different. You know so you. So they're gonna ask for different things. So, if you are thinking about getting into government contracting, you know which. If you're in one of the top industries for government contracting, that would be a great thing. You want to make sure that your business is set up properly. You want to make sure that you have a capability statement and you want to make sure that you start connecting with some of these offices, some of these organizations that help Businesses connect with government contracting officers, because they're the ones that's going to help you secure the contract even if you lose a billion.
Speaker 3:
I'm gonna tell y'all this if you, if you're in the, if you're navigating right now in the government contracting space, because we We've had I was the one that will go to the big offices, right.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, not always, not always, but like Further into it and you.
Speaker 3:
You'll have times to where you'll feel like man, we're not gonna win this big.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, oh, my goodness, you know what I'm saying, like you'll know it.
Speaker 3:
But don't let that discourage you, because it's so many times to where, when you go into those big conferences, you put your company name and your name on that, on that, on that roster, on that sign-in sheet, the, the first two or three companies that may get a water, the bid may not work out. And then guess what they do? They gonna go to that sheet and they gonna see who was there, who attended that conference, yep, and they gonna go down the. They gonna go down the road.
Speaker 3:
And even if your, if your number was higher, it was so many times that we've gotten a call to say hey, you know, the first four bids didn't work. Can y'all do the job?
Speaker 1:
Yes, that is so true. Yes, and we yeah.
Speaker 3:
Do the and at that point they negotiating with you. They like what the numbers that you put? Do they work or do we need like they? Nah, it's more. It's more conversation, it's more conversation.
Speaker 1:
At this point.
Speaker 3:
it's not even just about a bid and you submitted a number and it's taking a leave. It's like, nah, what we gotta do to make this work? Yeah, Because we need you. Right, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:
Because they have a deadline too. You know those government agencies and those contracting officers. You know they have a job to be done, and the job that is to be done is to get the work fulfilled and completed. You know, and so you know they're going again, like he said, they're going down the line. Their goal is to get the work completed. They have deadlines, and so you just want to make sure that you're in a position, your company is in a position to, if presented, you're able to fulfill this contract, you're able to fulfill these needs. You know so.
Speaker 3:
And then the other thing I'm going to say is going back to making sure that you attend all of the previous conferences. When you get an email saying that there's a contract proposal coming up and they might say that the previous conference is not mandatory, you still go, because what you want to do, especially as a small business, I'm going to just tell you they're always going to be about two, three to four companies that are big companies, larger companies.
Speaker 3:
And they're going to always go that attend these conferences and they bid on these projects all the time. Yeah, what you want to do. Even if in the back of your mind because this was me, I was there in the back of your mind you were like man, you know I might not get this contract, but it's a long game you go there and guess what you do? You network with those larger companies.
Speaker 1:
We've had companies. We've had companies that have called us multiple times on multi-million dollar contracts and have access. Can't y'all fulfill this aspect of the contract Just because we would go there, we would network and they would know that we knew what we were talking about. You know that's a whole another thing too.
Speaker 3:
So stop looking at them as competition. Look at them as an opportunity, because they may need you in a sense of where you might not even be thinking about. They may they're going to get a water to contract and depend on the size of the contract and they see that you're there and you have the capability. Then they may go ahead and give you actually what you might have been looking for. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
So that's good. So you got to go into when you're, when you're going, you know into these, you know bid opportunities. Don't look at the other companies as a competition. Look at them as a connection. You know what I'm saying. Look at them like if I'm connected with them, right? The?
Speaker 3:
plug.
Speaker 1:
Right, you know, and so that way you know. It's like again, when there, when opportunities come, it's like they know that y'all are in the same in the same field. Guess what they're going to do. They're going to give you the opportunity to fulfill whatever the aspect of the contract is, because when you have a multi million dollar contract, you definitely want to get people on the contract that know what they're doing.
Speaker 3:
Exactly, and the thing about it is, when you have a multi million dollar contract, your biggest value is going to be how you can build a team. Yes, that's going to be the big. That's going to be your biggest success.
Speaker 1:
And business period.
Speaker 3:
Your team.
Speaker 1:
Always Business period, because your team helps you to be able to work, to work smarter in our order.
Speaker 3:
For sure, but especially in government contracting, because a lot of the things in government contracting is service-based. Yeah, they have some, they have contracts that require some products, but a big bulk of government contracting is service-based. So the people that you are able to employ, the people that you are able to partner with, they're going to be the biggest, the biggest litmus test for your success.
Speaker 1:
Yep. So if y'all want to get into government contracting, if y'all have been thinking about getting into contracting, or if you are already in government contracting and you're thinking about pivoting, this is definitely an episode that you want to listen to, because we know just from firsthand experience that government contracting is definitely a way to not only build wealth but actually accelerate and grow your company. So if y'all like what we were talking about on this podcast, which I know y'all do y'all need to go ahead and like this podcast, subscribe, download and leave us a dope review, because we know y'all dope and y'all know we don't yeah for sure. So y'all, thank you so much for tuning in. This is the On your Keys podcast. I'm Hose Me and we got my co-host right here.
Speaker 3:
JCodey.
Speaker 1:
Hey, Gary.
Speaker 3:
Mr, on your Keys, y'all.
Speaker 1:
That's the edit. What's good? Download this. It's been real. We love you guys. Until next time, peace out. Be blessed.